Mixed-use development in Christchurch, New Zealand: Do you want to live there?

Christchurch, one of New Zealand’s major cities, has been dealing with a housing shortage after a series of major earthquakes struck in 2010 and 2011, causing extensive damage to the city. Consequently, two distinct types of housing development appeared in the suburban areas of Christchurch: low-density single-use neighbourhoods and higher-density mixed-use neighbourhoods. The latter type is relatively new for Christchurch suburban areas where low population densities dominated prior to 2011. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the preferences of the residents of Christchurch and its surrounding districts for living in mixed-use neighbourhoods. Specifically, it sought to identify the weights that those residents place on the costs of house purchase and transport, versus neighbourhood costs associated with mixed-use development, when purchasing a residential property in the suburban areas of Christchurch. For this, a stated preference survey was developed, using the efficient design method, and mixed-logit models were estimated using the data. The results show that most of those residents prefer to live in low-density single-use neighbourhoods rather than in higher-density mixed-use neighbourhoods, and are sensitive to increases in the land price, density of development and diversity of land use in the areas.